There have been two theories about why George W. Bush stopped flying Air National Guard jets four years after joining the Guard when his service commitment was for six years. Theory #1 is that George W. Bush decided that he was bored and would blow off his service commitment, and bet (correctly) that the Air Force hierarchy would not discipline the son of a prominent Texas politician. Theory #2 is that George W. Bush's superiors found themselves with too many pilots, and that Bush was not one of the pilots they wanted to keep in their squadrons on flight status. Now it appears that there is a third possibility: Bill Morlin and Karen Dorn Steele believe that George W. Bush ran afoul of the Air Force's Human Reliability Regulations in the spring of 1972, and so was bounced out of the cockpit.
The pieces of George W. Bush's Air National Guard file that would allow us to decide between these theories do not exist, or no longer exist, or appear not to exist.
The Spokesman-Review.com - Bush's partial history: ...Human reliability regulations were used to screen military personnel for their mental, physical and emotional fitness before granting them access to nuclear weapons and delivery systems. Under the rules, pilots could be removed immediately from the cockpit for HRP issues, which happened in the 1974 Washington Air National Guard case. The two Washington airmen were suspended on suspicion of drug use, but eventually received honorable discharges....
The Human Reliability Program, in a nutshell, applied to every U.S. Air Force and Air Guard pilot in any aircraft they would fly, said Marty Isham, a former Air Force briefing officer. Now a military historian and researcher, Isham is writing a book about the Air Defense Command, which controlled Air Guard units nationwide, including the Washington and Texas squadrons. Isham said there is a good likelihood HRP regulations were either applied or about to be applied against Bush and that is why he stopped flying on April 16, 1972.
White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said last week he couldn't answer any questions about HRP. That's a question I'd refer to the Department of Defense, Lisaius said when asked if the regulations led to Bush's giving up flying in the Texas Air Guard. We've released the president's complete military records, with the exception of his medical records, and they speak for themselves.
The president was honorably discharged, Lisaius said. At the National Guard Bureau, now headed by a Bush appointee from Texas, officials last week said they were under orders not to answer questions.
The bureau's chief historian said he couldn't discuss questions about Bush's military service on orders from the Pentagon. If it has to do with George W. Bush, the Texas Air National Guard or the Vietnam War, I can't talk with you, said Charles Gross, chief historian for the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C.
Rose Bird, Freedom of Information Act officer for the bureau, said her office stopped taking records requests on Bush's military service in mid-February and is directing all inquiries to the Pentagon. She would not provide a reason.
Air Force and Texas Air National Guard officials did not respond to written questions about the issue. James Hogan, a records coordinator at the Pentagon, said senior Defense Department officials had directed the National Guard Bureau not to respond to questions about Bush's military records.